"Playboy" unlikely to feature "The Girls of Afghanistan"

LONDON (Reuters) - As Afghan women tentatively lift their traditional veils after
years of anonymity, their men need not fear the lusty gaze of the outside world
-- at least not according to one of the world's largest men's magazines.

Afghan women topped an Internet poll released on
Monday by FHM magazine to find the "world's ugliest
girls", logging 28.5 percent of votes despite the fact
that years of rule by the hardline Taliban has kept
them all but invisible to outsiders.

In second place came the much more visible British
female with 5.1 percent of votes, and close behind
German women with 4.4 percent. Also in the Top 10
"ugly" league were women from the United States, China, Russia, Albania,
Turkey, France and India -- all with less than five percent of the voting.

FHM said the poll was completed by 59,000 of its 300,000 website subscribers
from all over the world. The site, www.fhm.com, is available in English, French,
Dutch and German.

In other parts of the poll looking at sexual attractiveness and availability, girls
from the United States came top in both categories with more than 15 percent,
while Sweden came second and Italy third.

FHM's Gavin Matheson said he did not believe there was a contradiction in
American women being rated within the Top 10 most ugly category while at the
same time coming top of the most sexually attractive and available category.

"I'd say availability has a major influence on their attractiveness," Matheson
said.

"That explains the position of British women, especially when they're on
holiday," he added. British women were rated the fifth most sexually attractive
despite coming second in the "ugly" stakes.

Silly question: how do they "know" they are "ugly" if they can't see
them? And, how is ugly defined? I would think that Afghan women
have little joy in their life, and that is probably reflected in
their faces, as with most women. Sounds a little too shallow to me-
just my two cents. But as always, beauty is in the eye of the
beholder as the saying goes!